Almost 9,000 Brazilian migrants have received "golden goodbye" payments of up to £3,000 each to leave Britain through the Home Office's Voluntary Returns Service, part of a scheme that has cost taxpayers over £40million in under two years. The payments, intended to cover travel and living expenses, are available to failed asylum seekers, visa overstayers and others without the right to remain, but critics argue the scheme does little to address small-boat Channel crossings, since migrants from the top nationalities arriving by dinghy have barely taken up the offer.

In total, 20,365 migrants accepted the incentive, including 3,629 Indians, 746 Colombians and 468 Hondurans, while only a handful of Eritreans, Sudanese, Afghans, Somalis and Iranians did so. The average payout now stands at £1,964 under Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, roughly four times the rate paid under the last Conservative government, and the Home Office is piloting a scheme offering failed asylum seekers up to £40,000 to leave. Officials defend the approach as cheaper than the £48,000 cost of forced removal, while Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp accused Labour of paying off migrants instead of tackling illegal crossings directly.